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SUNY Seeks More Minority Students

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Christina Roberts, a senior at Park West High School in Manhattan, assumed she would feel out of place at an upstate college. "When you think upstate, you think white," Miss Roberts said.

That was before she visited the State University of New York's College of Arts and Sciences at Brockport, almost 400 miles away in western New York. As a guest of the college for three days, she attended an African-American literature class, a celebration of the African-American festival of Kwanza, and a black fraternity step show.

Minority students make up less than 10 percent of Brockport's enrollment. But Miss Roberts, who lives with her grandmother in the East New York section of Brooklyn, is going to apply. "I was really comfortable," she said. "I thought, 'I can deal with this.' "

Miss Roberts and several classmates from Park West visited Brockport this month as part of a program by the State University of New York to interest minority students from New York City in its rural campuses. Brockport is one of a half-dozen colleges to adopt a public school in the city this year, sending professors to high school classrooms and inviting high school students to campuses. They Live at Home

University officials and high school administrators say the program is their best hope for increasing minority enrollment in the largely white state system, while allowing students to escape the kind of urban violence they are confronted with in their daily lives.

"The environments that many of my children come from are such that they must get away, they must get out of the house and experience a different way of life," said Park West's principal, Richard A. Ross. Park West is 1.5 percent white and many students come from poor single-parent families.

Most of his graduates who go on to college, he said, enter the City University of New York and live at home.

"There are young people who can't believe what it's like to live in an area where there's grass outside, where it's quiet," he said of the 1,800 students at Park West, on 50th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. "I've called parents at night and heard gunshots in the background while we're on the phone." Misgivings About College

For SUNY, the program is an important part of an effort to make its enrollment of 404,200 more diverse. By the year 2000, officials say, they want the system's enrollment to mirror the state's high-school population, of which 26 percent is made up of minority-group members. Now 13 percent of the university's students belong to minority groups.

"In years past, we haven't had heavy recruitment in New York City," said Edward D. Bell, SUNY's assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and head of the New York City recruiting office. "New York City students often don't leave the city or even their borough. Many just look to CUNY as where you go to college," he said of the high school juniors and seniors that SUNY is targeting with the program.

Or, they don't go to college at all. Marie Elberisus, a soft-spoken Park West senior from Brooklyn, said most of her fellow students had misgivings about college. "Everyone says: 'I'm not going to college. I'm going to get a job. College is too hard,' " she said.

Her principal, Mr. Ross, said that stronger psychological forces were at work, among them low self-esteem, parents who had not attended college, and a lack of encouragement. "What I'm hearing from my students is that college is for white people," he said. "So many of my kids don't believe they can achieve." A Permanent Bond

Two years ago, Brockport revised its mission statement to incorporate a commitment to diversity. While the proportion of minority students has slipped to 8 percent of the enrollment of 6,886 undergraduates, from a high of 11 percent in 1985, college officials say they are determined to increase the minority presence on campuses.

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Brockport's president, John E. Van de Wetering, said: "We want very much to be able to recruit from a larger Hispanic, African-American, Native American and Asian population than we do currently, and we see this program as an opportunity to do that fairly aggressively."

Even if the Park West students who visited go elsewhere, SUNY is confident that forming permanent bonds between a college and a high school will eventually produce results.

Last month, Clyde Alafiju Morgan, a dance professor at Brockport, spent two days at Park West. First, he led 30 students in brightly colored leotards through traditional African dances. 'Nature Makes a Difference'

Then, with the students assembled on gymnasium bleachers, Professor Morgan gave his soft sell. "I don't want to paint a picture of a remote college as being ideal," he said, "but there's something nice about going away to college where nature makes a difference in your body rhythms."

Indeed, the dozen students chosen by Park West to board an Amtrak train for the six-hour ride to Brockport a month later took to the countryside. Gazing out a window, Katrena Maynard, a senior, said, "Doesn't this look like it would be in a storybook: the dog, the trees, the snow?"

Once at Brockport, however, the program arranged for them reflected the social segregation that is common there. Showing off the network of cultural activities and support systems it has established for minority students, the college directed the teen-agers to mainly black-oriented activities.

And though that network was praised by both black undergraduates and the Park West students, interaction with white students was limited. 'I Like It Here'

Though they received a hearty welcome from black undergraduates, a few Park West students were dismayed by the lack of interaction between whites and blacks.

"Not one white student introduced themselves, not one," said Shelliann Shimhue, a Park West sophomore from the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. "But I like it here."

But black and Hispanic students at Brockport said the cohesiveness of the minority community created a nurturing atmosphere. "It's far enough away from home so you can grow, but small enough so you can take the bull by the horns and have an impact," said David Farris, a 23-year-old senior from Mount Vernon, in his final semester.

"There are problems," said Mr. Farris, a communications major and member of the Student Minority Admissions Recruitment Team. "But there is a formal campaign on the part of the university to combat them."

Some visitors, such as Miss Elberisus, needed no cajoling.

"I fell in love with the place -- the meals, the classes," said Miss Elberisus, sounding reluctant to leave the next day. "I already called my mother. I said, 'Mom, I'm going here.' "

A version of this article appears in print on December 18, 1990, on Page B00002 of the National edition with the headline: SUNY Seeks More Minority Students. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe